Round Barrow(s)

Folklore

Ah, the Hill of Health. You can just imagine sitting on this barrow, breathing in the fresh air. Or is that really what it means? T C Lethbridge, in his 1956 article "The Wandlebury Giants", suggests that the name actually comes from 'Hill of Helith' - Helith being another name for Baal / Gog, and relating to sun worship - and maybe he was right.

But you'd imagine there must be some local folklore to explain such a name? The 'Hidden East Anglia' website says the sometime owners of the house in whose garden the mound stands said 'Saxons were buried there', and also that Lethbridge heard a local legend about a Dane skinning a shepherd boy there. Neither of which sound very healthy.

The barrow is immediately east of a track that the Magic SMR record describes as a route of the Icknield Way. Although it has a dent in where antiquarians dug into it long ago, it is still quite intact and stands 2.7m high.